This verse summarizes the content of verses 59-61.

The lips is a poetic way of referring to what comes out of the enemies’ mouth. This refers to their harmful talk, which Biblia Dios Habla Hoy calls “gossip” or “empty talk.” New Jerusalem Bible has “the whispering and murmuring,” New International Version “what my enemies whisper and mutter against me.”

Against me all the day long represents the literal Hebrew wording; this is expressed in the same manner by Good News Translation but is placed before the main clause.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .